Pretty, Reckless, Winchester

LVII. Man in the Box

[Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox]

EMERSON, MANITOBA; 1980

Young Asa was running through the woods, looking over his shoulder at something chasing him. He tripped over a log and fell. The werewolf who'd been chasing him captured him and pinned him to a tree. The wolf scratched Asa's face with a claw, snarling at Asa, preparing to tear out his heart, when a gunshot sounded and Asa's face was spattered with blood. Mary had shot the werewolf and saved Asa. Mary then drove Asa home.

"So, this is your house?" Mary asked.

Asa nodded, holding a cloth to the cut on his face.

Mary continued. "Look, you did a great job of pointing directions, but words are helpful. And names. Like me? I'm Mary. Winchester."

"Asa. Fox." Asa replied.

"That's a great name. You're gonna be fine. I know it doesn't seem like it, but you are."

"What was that thing?"

"A werewolf. One I've been tracking for a long time. We had history. Come on." Mary got out of the car, followed by Asa.

"Werewolf? You kill werewolves?"

"I hunted a lot of bad things."

"Hunted. Like past tense?"

"I'm retiring. Well, officially I'm already retired. I'm just tying up a few loose ends."

"But if you retire, who's gonna save people like me?"

"Uh, your mom in there?"

Asa nodded, but looked away from Mary.

"Good." Mary replied. "Hey, let me just..." Mary reaches out to tidy up Asa's hair a little bit. "That's better. Good enough. Well, go on." She watched Asa go home and waved; Asa turned and snapped a polaroid of Mary getting back into her car, which he tacked to his bulletin board.

Montage of Asa's life and journey to becoming a hunter set to Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Roll On Down The Highway, featuring the postcards he wrote but never sent to Mary.

Asa was working on his old Jeep.

"Hey, you know they make new cars, right?" Bucky said.

"I don't want a new car. This is my lucky car." Asa told him.

Asa was running through the forest again, but it was night and he was chasing the monster. As before, he ended up pinned to a tree, but he'd been hanged.

JODY MILL'S HOUSE - PRESENT DAY

Jody brought a pizza and a glass of wine to the couch. "Aah, Netflix. What do you recommend to fill my day off." She singsonged, "Speak to me."

Someone knocked at the door as soon as she turned the TV on. She sighed and answered the door to see Sam, Dean, Nate, and Holly.

"Wow, you look terrible. What's wrong?" Jody asked.

"Sure, we'd love to come in." Dean gave Jody and hug and entered the house.

"Hey." Sam said, kissing Jody's cheek and followed Dean. "Yeah, we just finished a hunt in Brookings."

Nate and Holly greeted Jody with a smile and walked inside.

"And you couldn't take a shower first?" Jody asked.

"Heh." Dean said.

"Ha ha. We figured we'd stop by on the way home and see you, Claire, and Alex." Sam replied.